How Your Attorney’s Paralegal Can Help You

Your attorney’s paralegal can help you in a variety of ways. Learning how to effectively work with the law firm’s paralegal can help your case. The paralegal is not there to be a barrier between you and your attorney, s/he is there as an important part of a professional team to help get the job done right!

What a paralegal can do to help you:

Explain the day-to-day workings of the legal process to you;

Help you understand and organize the information that you are giving to your attorney;

Help you understand and answer discovery in your case;

Help you understand what types of issues are true emergencies – if and when your attorney should be immediately paged, the police should be notified, for instance;

Tell you when you should come in for a face-to-face meeting with your attorney;

Type and prepare documents and pleadings under the direction of your attorney;

Help manage the scheduling and day-to-day aspects of the case under the direction of your attorney;

Save you “attorney time” and therefore save you money (the hourly rate charged by law firms for the work that a paralegal or other staff member does on your file is generally less that the attorney’s hourly rate).

Appropriate questions to ask a paralegal:

How long do cases like mine usually take?

What is the next step in my case?

I have information for the attorney to see. Should I email him/her directly, give it to you, or make an appointment to come in?

I don’t understand some information that I received from your office.

Can you tell me more about what to expect at mediation?

Has the court scheduled a hearing yet?

Some things that a paralegal cannot do:

Give legal advice;

“Run” the case instead of the lawyer;

Go to court for you;

Represent himself/herself to be a lawyer;

Reveal client’s confidential information.

A paralegal can help you. It is a good idea to get to know the paralegal working on your case as doing so can save you time and money.